Investigation and analysis of physical expansion pattern of Ghaemshahr city with smart urban growth approach

Urban sprawl generally indicates a kind of urbanization with horizontal and inappropriate growth. This is due to the uncontrolled expansion of urban areas, scattered residential areas, and low-density development. The goal of smart urban growth is to solve problems in the urban development process in order to promote urban development and also turn urban lands into more rational and efficient uses. The main purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the pattern of physical expansion of Qaemshahr city which is located in Mazandaran, Iran, with the approach of smart urban growth. To achieve this goal, intensive development, condition of the road network and access, shape and morphology of the city, quality of urban transportation, quality and variety of housing, concentration of activities in neighborhoods, and creation Attractive areas are investigated in 20 neighborhoods of the city, from 8 indicators of mixed use. The research method is descriptive-analytical. Holdern's model, GIS data, and data from the Statistics Center of Iran were used to analyze the data. Also, a questionnaire was used to determine the weight of the criteria and the MOORA technique was used to rank twenty neighborhoods based on smart urban growth indicators. The results of the studies showed that according to the Holdern model, during the period 1380 to 1395, about 56% of the growth of the city, was in line with population growth and the remaining 44% had uneven, horizontal, and spiral urban growth. Also, the calculations performed in the MOORA technique show that neighborhoods 6, 12, 14 and 2 are considered as developed neighborhoods and neighborhoods 1, 13, 11, 10, 9, 7 got the lowest ranks among the others. Moreover, neighborhoods 4, 5, 20, 3, 18, 19, 8, 15, 16, 17 ranked fifth to fourteenth and are in the middle of the development